Lukes Wings: Fashion Takes Flight 2013

Who says fashion can’t benefit a great cause? The Fashion Takes Flight event held on March 23rd, 2013 helped to benefit the Luke’s Wings charity with a cocktail reception, pop-up shops and an exciting runway show featuring active duty, wounded or retired military veterans. Proceeds from tickets, donations and a percentage of sales from the pop-up shops went directly to help this cause. Luke’s Wings is a charity that flies the loved ones in military families out to see wounded soldiers during the hospital and rehabilitation process since this is a time when they need their family most. Luke’s Wings has already been able to raise enough money for 12,000 flights and seeks to continue these efforts.

The Fashion Takes Flight Event was held at the newly renovated Area Stage in Southwest Washington DC. Doors opened at 7:00pm and the show began at 9:45 pm. The event was sponsored by Kind Bar and fashions were shown from various local DC designers. The cocktail reception beforehand served a variety of drinks and appetizers and included the opportunity to browse various pop-up shops from local vendors such as Alex and Ani and enter raffles for Washington Wizards Tickets or a stay at the Ritz Carlton. Notable event attendees included Miss Virginia USA, ABC 7 news anchor Mike Marza and various military veterans including a quadruple amputee survivor.

The runway show featured the designs of locals such as Reddoll, Nom, Crystal Jo, TARI and Christopher Shafer Clother. Most of the collections featured spring colors, sheer fabrics, flowy dresses, blouses and tailored menswear. Reddoll used a variety of sheer fabrics in aqua, white, red, navy(the black for spring) and black and white polka dot patterns to create gorgeous flowy maxi and shift dresses and loose cut blouses. TARI featured casual looks of jackets and pants for men along with some bright and patterned suits. An orange suit jacket was modeled by Justin Constantine, a wounded military veteran that has had to have a multitude of surgeries after being shot in the jaw during his deployment in Iraq. Crystal Jo’s collection featured a lot of high-waisted shorts and skirts with blazers or tops with high necklines. She also featured some unique details in her designs such as lace fabric inserts, exposed zippers, high-low styles, accordion pleats, peplum and large buttons in spring colors such as teal, light purple, white and dusty pink . Christopher Schafer’s collection featured tailored menswear in olive, black and gray. A striped gray suit jacket with kacki pants was worn by a double amputee veteran. The finale of the show featured a final walk-through of all of the active duty, wounded and retired military veterans. It definitely was a vibrant, exciting and very meaningful event to remember.